Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.55%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment , Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.55%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ), which rose 9.00% or 0.900 points to trade at 10.900 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ) added 2.55% or 0.060 points to end at 2.410 and Bega Cheese Ltd (AX: BGA ) was up 2.02% or 0.130 points to 6.550 in late trade.

Biggest losers included BT Investment Management Ltd (AX: BTT ), which lost 7.87% or 0.970 points to trade at 11.360 in late trade. Fairfax Media Ltd (AX: FXJ ) declined 6.25% or 0.075 points to end at 1.125 and Flight Centre Ltd (AX: FLT ) shed 4.11% or 1.640 points to 38.230.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 750 to 482 and 397 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 11.35% to 13.149.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.04% or 0.53 to $1245.27 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.67% or 0.30 to hit $45.23 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.29 to trade at $47.92 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7691, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 86.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 95.34.